Facebook Stories and Messenger Day combined and called…Stories

Here’s the replay of Monday 20 November’s The #SocialMediaShow which was broadcast live via my Facebook Profile from Cardiff, Wales. The big news this week was the merging of Facebook Stories and Messenger Day. Read more on this plus the the rest of the week’s social media news stories below plus insights in italics including announcements of plenty of new features. Plus as usual there’s Headline, Question Time, Tip Of The Tip, Tools Talk plus Number of the Week.

FACEBOOK NEWS1. Messenger Day and Facebook Stories have been combined. You can post to either and your story will be shared to both. The merged feature is now called ‘Stories’. This clears up a lot of confusion as users where unclear which one to post to.
2. Stories are now available for Events and Groups. Great way to create engagement for communities of people.
3. Story reminders are now appearing in News Feed. Facebook now makes recommendations on “Page Stories You May Like” from Pages you do not follow. Another indication that Facebook is moving more towards being a media company rather than a social network.
4. Facebook Direct is no more. Disappearing messages have now disappeared. Not often that FB withdraw a feature.
5. Facebook is testing slide show covers on Pages.

6. Facebook event tagging has become dynamic. If you tag an event your friends can see which of their friends is going and state ‘Going’. Available on desktop only. Handy new feature.
7. Similar named to the above but a different new feature is Tag Event which displays current events near to you. Available on mobile only. Nice use of location services.
8. New Search filter for posts being tested. This makes it easier to surface content which is an issue with current search.
9. There’s a new highlighted shares metrics. This new feature gives publishers and creators more information about the top five Pages that are re-sharing their videos. Useful information.
10. British museum The National Gallery have posted early examples of ‘360 experiences’ on Facebook. Move around with your mouse cursor. No headset needed.

FACEBOOK LIVE NEWS11. There’s a new Facebook for Creators App and website for users of Facebook Live. I tried it for the first time on this morning’s #SocialMediaShow but was disappointed with the lack of Comments (unless I’m missing something?). Live Creative Kit: Access exclusive tools that make it easy to create live broadcasts with a personalized and fun feel. Creators can add intros as openers to their live broadcasts, outros that conclude them, custom live stickers that viewers can use to interact, and graphic frames to create a consistent brand. Community Tab: Connect with fans and collaborators with a unified inbox, which centralizes comments from Facebook and Instagram, and messages from Messenger. Camera & Stories: Use fun camera effects and frames and easily crosspost content to other platforms. Creators can also access Facebook Stories to engage with their fans. Insights: Easily access metrics to inform content creation, including analytics about your Page, videos and fans.
12. Some users have glimpsed a reference to Fan Club on Live. Looks like a new feature to engage fans.

FACEBOOK WORKPLACE NEWS13. Virgin Atlantic are having a positive experience with Facebook Workplace. Virgin Atlantic CIO and senior vice president for technology Don Langford said, “We went live in the beginning of September and our target for the end of the year was for us to be at 65% adoption. We are already over that now; we have got over 7,000 people up on it, so over 70%.”

INSTAGRAM NEWS14. Instagram is testing the ability to follow hashtags as well as accounts. Would be a major change but I like the idea.

LINKEDIN NEWS15. The Career Advice feature flagged up in a previous #SocialMediaShow has been rolled out in the UK. Go to your profile and you’ll find it in the ‘Your Dashboard’ section. The idea is that you can mentor others in your industry that are looking for career advice. Online mentoring could prove popular on LinkedIn.

TWITTER NEWS16. Twitter has launched a new tool – Twitter Assistant. Twitter is partnering with Union Metrics to provide Twitter Assistant; a brand new, free analytics tool with personalised recommendations. I really like the pro-active recommendations.

PINTEREST NEWS17. Lens Your Look is a new innovative feature. You take a photo of a wardrobe item then find similar clothes on Pinterest to match.
18. And another innovative feature – Pinterest Pincodes. You’ll soon see them in shops plus you can create one for your Pinterest profile. The idea is to direct shoppers to particular boards for more context.

SOCIAL ADVERTISING NEWS19. Lead Gen Forms are now available in Sponsored InMail campaigns. Could prove a powerful combination.
20. LinkedIn have launched Dynamic Ads that can “can instantly generate leads and enable content downloads” direct from the News Feed. The ads can be personalised with the user’s photo and profile info. Shades of Minority Report but could be very effective.

And finally:The Independent has streamed fake ‘live’ space video on Facebook. When it fact it was footage from 2015.

Tip Of The Week: Post from LinkedIn Company Page then get your employees and stakeholders to share.Tools Talk: www.awesomescreenshot.com – A Chrome extension that enables you to capture images and videos of your screen.Number Of The Week: 51%. Research from Lloyds Bank shows that charities using social media are 51% more likely to see an increase in donations.

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